‎2012 is a time to move forward with our plans to take the Truth to the next level. This cannot happen if we don’t leave behind the old self which is a viper fill with hypocritical behaviors. If you must fast to do so ;then fast or if you must pray to do so then pray for your change. It is better to be an outright enemy then a snake in the grass which calls itself a friend. We must unite in our ef…forts to bring back the original Gospel ,decency, salvation,forgiveness and repentance. Let’s help make positive changes in the lives of other Christians. That said I am asking all of you who have already started your fast and prayers for 2012 to reexamine yourselves ,your values or purpose for been called a Christian or identifying with the Kingdom of God. Edit your life and delete the mess within it. God and dirt don’t miss up ,for the presence of God is cleanness and purity.

Power does not come by working up emotion. We may shout, sweat, get excited, and thump the pulpit when we have the anointing of God. But without that anointing, we are actors, and the platform is a mere stage. God does not want theatricals. Get God’s love into your heart and true emotions flow. Anything else is emotionalism, imitation feeling. It reminds me of a silly man trying to speak from one city to another by shouting when the telephone line is dead. If the line is live, and there is power in it, his voice will reach the other city easily. If the gospel is live, it will reach the hearts of hearers. God bless you.

There is the tendency for people to feel uncomfortable in the “in between” times, while awaiting loves entry. Whether it’s the desire to date someone special or to secure a sexual partner… there is a sense of incompleteness that attends most of this process. That drive comes from the inner urge to find partnership in the hopes of new beginnings. There can be daunted expectations or frustrated attempts. In this time period, it’s important to continue to live life. And, to live life fully. We can’t make another person jump into our lives. We can’t magically produce the partner we want. In thinking that life is incomplete without this special “someone,” we put ourselves in a holding pot ,that keeps us from enjoying the life we do have, now.

This type of thinking is the surest way to repel anyone who may be interested. The most attractive quality a person can possess is confidence. Part of that confidence is not only in oneself, but a confidence in the flow of life. To allow life to be lived fully while in expectant anticipation of partnership, is the key to attracting the “other” we seek. We are not incomplete. We are not faulty or missing out on life. There’s nothing wrong with being single and enjoying the experience. Partnership is the merging of two souls. Yet there has been the social-construct that infers being “one,” isn’t enough. If we think we’re bright, attractive and interesting… why are we single? Why not? To be single doesn’t imply that we are less. It’s simply a definition of one who isn’t currently partnered. When we do finally meet that special person, we’ll be adding them to a life we already have. First, we need to have a life. Then, the partner is simply an addition to an already full life.

Being single isn’t a death sentence of uncomfortable waiting before someone comes to save us. It’s part of life, for all. At some time we will be single. To begin to look at this time period as having merit in and of itself, is the beginning to the cure to this social mis-construct. The point is to embrace-life, and embrace our life. There are perks that come with being single. We have the ability to focus solely upon ourselves. We have no one to report to, or with whom to negotiate our choices. Our time is our own. We have only our problems to attend to, and only our desires to fulfill. We have the rare opportunity to explore what we want, when we want and without constraint. It’s a rich and beautiful experience, if we allow it to be. The more we add to our lives in this period, the more we have to offer when partnership arrives

«Now, therefore, says the Lord, Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him» (Joel 2:12-14).

We all want to see the glorious manifestation of God’s incomparable glory. We all are crying out for the latter rain. Some believe it is already here, although I personally disagree. We are all very fond of preaching about the massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and about God’s manifested blessings and healings. However, I perceive a lack of understanding in many of these messages. We are tickling the people’s ears, but omitting significant truths. God is a God of order. He has established a pattern for all things, which includes the experience of revival and holy outpourings. We must understand and follow these prescribed methods if we desire the real and authentic blessings of God.

#1) REVERENCE FOR GOD

There must be a restoration of the fear of the Lord! There must be a return to humility and reverence. For too long I have seen the people of God offering up what might be called «strange fire». In other words, we have profaned the name of the Lord by building up our own ministries, apart from the call of God; we have spent an inordinate amount of our time and energies propagating our own agendas and tagging them with God’s name, rather than serving Him and His ordained will humbly and gratefully. We have maligned and vitiated the name of God by calling ourselves Christians and living lives that are antithetical to Christ. Worse yet, we justify ourselves in the midst of it!

We also preach grandly of the love of Christ, yet ignore the radical call He gives to holiness. We say that we belong to God, yet act as though we do not! Keith Green sang once of this, singing, «You speak of grace and My love so sweet; how you thrive on milk but reject My meat». We do not honor God when we offer only half of who He is! YES, God is love! Most certainly! But God is also HOLY! We must present a balanced view of our King and Redeemer. Amen? «By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified» (Leviticus 10:3).

«Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire» (Hebrews 12:28-29).

II.) REPENTANCE

True repentance comes from understanding who God is, and who we are in the light of that. When we see the grandeur and perfection of God; His holiness brightly displayed to our senses, an awareness of our sinfulness comes to the fore. Isaiah cried out, «Woe is me. I am undone». Peter begged the Lord to leave him for he saw His uncleanness and sin before God. Paul saw himself as the chief of sinners. The Scriptures declare that no flesh shall glory in His presence (I Corinthians 1:29). All that does not honor God will be exposed and brought to the light. Thus, when we are truly in His presence, an awareness of these things is brought to bear. With that awareness we may see godly sorrow leading to repentance. Very simply, repentance (from the Greek word «metanoia») is a compunction (for guilt) and involves a reformation, that is, a reversal of direction. Biblically, it means turning from our own selfish ways (once they have been exposed and we recognize them), and turning to God’s ways. True repentance is not something done merely on an external level. It is not changing our habits to look more godly. It is an actual reformation of our hearts! This is why, in the verse quoted at the onset, the Lord tells us to rend our hearts, not our garments. He is not interested in a public display of righteousness, or in our religious acts. In fact, apart from true godliness of heart, He despises our religious shows. One has only to read the Scriptures to gather that clear fact (e.g., Isaiah 58; Isaiah 1:10-20; Amos 5:18-27). The truth is, God sees behind our actions to our very motives. He sees that while we worship Him with our lips and religious piety, our hearts are far from Him. This evidences a lack of the fear of the Lord. The results are grievous and, if abide unrepented of, disastrous. For these reasons, repentance is paramount. True repentance restores that relationship with the Father which sin separates. True repentance will renew the Holy Lord’s favor upon us, that He may bless us and cause us to abound in favor and glory.

III.) THE LATTER RAIN/OUTPOURING

God commands us to keep His commandments and to obey His Word. He does so specifically for two reasons. The first is that obedience is the evidence of true faith. it is not what saves us-only the perfect Blood of the Lord Jesus does. But the evidence (or living proof) of our faith is confirmed in our obedience (James 2:14-26). Secondly, by keeping God’s commandments, He is able to bless us, keep us, and be gracious towards us (Deuteronomy 6:40; Isaiah 30:18). The latter rains/outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit upon the earth is predicated on our godly fear and repentance. Notice that before Joel delivers that awesome prophecy (Joel 2:28-32), which began at the inception of the early church (Acts 2), Joel first apprises the people of their sins, and calls for solemn repentance, weeping, mourning, fasting and prayer. Following their return from exile, the Israelites had rejoiced and gloried in their newfound freedom. They celebrated God with great fervor, as they began the restoration of the Temple of God (Ezra 3:8-13). I stress the word «began». They got only as far as the foundation before trials beset them, frustration and weariness and other emotions set in. Soon, they abandoned the idea of restoring God’s house and focused on their own lives and personal security. Before long, the will of God was forgotten and life returned as usual (Haggai 1:2-9). Yes, «church services» were held, but God was no longer truly reverenced in those services, nor in their hearts. For these reasons, the rains of revival and blessing could not come. God «withheld the dew and earth’s fruit» (Haggai 1:10-11). All their labors were vain and fruitless. The expected glory of God and its subsequent blessings didn’t come. The outpouring was withheld because God was not reverenced and because their hearts were not repentant. God had to send them prophets to awaken them from their spiritual slumber, encourage them to get right with God, and return to His designed will for them. May He do the same with us today! For then will we see the glorious power of God shake the earth. Then will we see His kingdom (alive in us), taking hold of the earth, and filling it with His glory as the waters cover the earth. Then will the latter rains coming, watering the seeds of His Word, fertilizing men’s hearts, and giving birth to a harvest of souls never before seen in history. Then will His hand release the floods of glory, blessing, healing, and deliverance we all are so much wanting to see!

May this word encourage you to seek the Lord, search your own heart and, thereby, result in a refreshing rain of revival in your own lives, that may carry into all the world, just as we are longing for it to be, and just as God has ordained it to be! Blessings upon you, beloved, and Godspeed!!

FELLOW CHRISTIANS IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP TO THE REALITY OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NIGERIA BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS . CHRISTIANITY IS A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP WHERE ALL ARE EQUAL AND WHAT AFFECTS THE EYES AFFECTS THE NOSE. IT IS TIME WE RISE UP TO CALL UPON COUNTRIES THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS FORM OF TERRORISM TO HELP PUT THIS EVIL TO A END ONCE AND FOR ALL. WE ALL CALLING UPON ALL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, THE VATICAN ETC. NEGOTIATORS SKILLFUL IN TRAUMA HEALING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION TO JOIN FORCES WITH US TO BEGIN A TRUCE NEGOTIATION BETWEEN BOTH SIDES IN ORDER TO FIND A LASTING PEACE IN THE CHRISTIAN /MUSLIM NIGERIAN CONFLICT WHICH IS SPREADING DANGEROUSLY AND COULD AFFECT THIS REGION AND EVEN BEYOND IF NOT CONTAIN IN TIME. AS A FAMILY WE ARE OPEN TO HELPING THE GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA STOP THIS AGE OLD PROBLEM ONCE AND FOR ALL. MAIN WHILE WE ARE CALLING ON ALL CHRISTIANS TO SAY A PRAYER FOR THOSE AFFECTED IN THIS CONFLICT.

«Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, because all men sinned» (Romans 5:12).

Wow! ONE man disdains God’s command, and, as a result, it mushrooms into global apostasy. Hard to fathom that by the act of just one man, all men have been affected. However, the fact that this one happens to be the very First man, from whom all others will descend clarifies it some. His direct rebellion of God’s ONLY restriction, led to death for that was God’s prearranged condition. Adam knew this, but deliberately disobeyed anyway. Through his genetic bloodline (from which all humans sprang) the plague of sin, and its ensuing result of death, spread. Not simply because Adam sinned, but because that one act changed Adam’s nature. He was now endowed with what we refer to as the «sin nature». By virtue of that genetic mutation, everyone born thereafter is born with the same defect, thus all men are cursed to die. This ostensibly irreversible judgment does have one escape clause, but men have continually rejected it. Men are not accounted guilty for what they are not aware is evil (Romans 5:13), but death was still in play for all. God is able, though, to hold ALL men accountable because He has made these things known to men incontrovertibly. Psalm 19:1-4 tells us that the very creation of God declares His glory, and that throughout ALL the world. They declare of His eternal power and divinity, making visible to man God’s invisible nature. Paul states that because of this all men are «without excuse (altogether without any defense or justification)» (Romans 1:20-21). Moreover, God has personally declared Himself to all the general revelation of Himself to men’s inner consciousness.

The true sting of sin (and death as a result), is not the act itself, but the heart BEHIND the act. Sin is a deliberate act of repressing and hindering the revealed truth of God. It’s taking what one knows of Him and refusing to acknowledge that truth as such. The element of ingratitude also enters into the equation. Worse yet, men decide that rejection and ingratitude aren’t enough! Harboring umbrage in their hearts, they seek to vehemently oppugn God by taking His creation and making THOSE things their gods! What a slap in the face of the Almighty! However, this has become their destruction. In choosing to revolt against Him they degenerated into fools, darkened their hearts, and were shut out from God.

They did not want God, so God abandoned them to their own lusts. So men degraded, feeding themselves on the disease of sin, and dying as a result. Men did not approve of God, see fit to acknowledge Him, nor did they consider Him even WORTH knowing. So, men became more and more perverse. Ever wonder why God ALLOWS evil and suffering? Here’s the answer. That is what happens when men choose to reject God. They get a world where His loving power is withheld. He has given men what they desired. We have no right to blame Him for the horrid results. We live in a world of our own choosing. We have now become «filled (permeated, saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice…without understanding, conscienceless and faithless, heartless and loveless and merciless» (Romans 1:29-31). Beginning with the disobedience of just one man, the cancer of sin has spread to all men. Death has reigned over all men as its inevitable, God-ordained result. God has abandoned us to our desires and we will all perish as a result. God’s law is firm and the curse is irreversible.

Or is it……?!?

The disobedience of one man (Adam) led to death, and through Adam, all men died. Sin has left a heavy toll upon mankind. Through Adam we have inherited a sin-nature (i.e. the propensity to sin), the eviction of man from God’s intimate presence, and the curse of death. The plague has swept across the planet and infected everyone and everything. We have chosen autonomy and rejected God’s divine authority. God, in turn, has abandoned us to our own perverse desires. We have sold our souls to sin and become its slave, with death eternal as our only reward (Romans 6:23a; Ephesians 2:1-3). What an awful tragedy. So, now, what if one should decide that one no longer desires this captivity? Is man doomed eternally? Is all hope gone? Has God forever abandoned His creation to this vile lot? Is there no way to escape from this damnation? Truly we can cry with the Apostle, «O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release me from (the shackles of) this body of death?» (Romans 7:24). Indeed, how shall we be delivered from this «irreversible» judgment?

«Well then, as one man’s (Adam) trespass (one man’s false step and falling away led) to condemnation for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness (leads) to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men. For just as by one man’s disobedience the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him)» (Romans 5:18-19).

Really?!? Just like that? A locum tremens (substitute) to bear our punishment, the wrath due to us for our unrighteousness? One Man’s sacrifice on account of all mens’ sin is sufficient to revoke the sentence of death that is upon us all?!? A free pass from death and eternal judgment?!? Yes! «For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive (God’s) overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the FREE GIFT of righteousness reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ» (Romans 5:17).

You may be asking, «But why? Why would He do that»? Simply because He loves us and His mercy is so amazingly great toward us. Listen: «But God shows and clearly proves His love for us by the fact that WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, Christ Jesus died for us» (Romans 5:8). And again, «But God-so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead by our own shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation)» (Ephesians 2:4-5).

The power of one. One man’s disobedience led to sin, death, and judgment. The power of One. One Man’s obedience reverses the destruction of the first, giving righteousness, life, and liberty to those formerly bound. I lament the power of one (Adam). I praise the power of The One (Jesus). Now, thanks to His obedience and substitutionary sacrifice, I can say «There is no longer any condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life (which is in Christ Jesus) has freed me from the the law of sin and death» (Romans 8:1-2).

Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.” So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years. It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.” Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” And when the king asked the woman, she told him.
So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”
2 kings 8: 1-6 (NKJV)

You can read the story of the Shunammite women whom Elisha the man of God raised her son from the dead in 2 kings chapter 4. But what God wants to reveal for you today are three things:
First one: Elisha worn the women to take her household and leave to another land for the Lord has called a famine in the land for seven years.
Second one: after the seven years she came back to ask for her land and right in front of the king, and in the same time the king was hearing about Elisha’s miracles from the mouth of Elisha’s servant and he mentioned this woman’s story.
Third one: because the hand of God was over her life, the king appointed one of his officers for her, to guarantee that she restores all her right from the day she lift till the day she came back.
And all these three applies to us, the first thing God starts to warn us about bad things that will happen to us, either we listen or not, but when we hear Him and obey, He starts to arrange the land and the people and the place so we can and restore our rights in Christ, and by default we will take back all what we deserve and sometimes more.